Alix In Paris: Rafa Time; Pin Up

Written by: Staff on 1st June 2010

Alix In Paris: Rafa Time; Pin Up |

The French — and particularly the Parisians — have always had their own way of doing things but this year at the French Open, they have broken new ground.

In Melbourne and New York, the Australian and US Opens have day and night sessions. Indeed, such is the nature of the scheduling that some of the night sessions are in serious danger of becoming breakfast sessions. No matter — they have floodlights and they can manage. Even Wimbledon, the Grand Slam tournament of my homeland, has a roof over Centre Court and accompanying lights to ensure that any match can now be finished without rain delays and a court side interpreter giving a running commentary in Braille.

But the French have done it differently this year. Vive la difference! Vive la revolution!

Without the aid of either a roof or floodlighting, the French Open organizers have imposed night matches on the players. Justine Henin played five days in a row and then lost (thanks to two rain and light delayed matches and a fourth round encounter with Sam Stosur) while Gael Monfils was hauled off court at 9:55 p.m. at 5-5 in the fifth set against Fabio Fognini when it was so dark that neither player could see their hand in front of their face.

Yet, bizarrely, France is the country that imposed a 35-hour week on its workforce in 2000. This rule was supposed to create more jobs (rather than bankrupt many companies, which was the end result). M’learned friends from L’Equipe newspaper were somewhat scuppered when this law came into effect as in the course of one Australian Open, they could rack up enough working hours to ensure that they did not have to work again for weeks. This did neither them nor their newspaper any good at all. But I digress…

Here’s the thing: 10sballs.com has discovered why the French have not produced a male French Open champion since Yannick Noah in 1983. It’s simple — the law states that the poor little darlings have be home in time to have supper with their mummies and, as this first week at Roland Garros has shown us, that ain’t the way to win a Grand Slam championship. Not in Paris, at any rate.

Irony does not feature large in the world of tennis but, every now and then, our little universe comes up trumps.

Rafa Nadal, he of the six Grand Slam titles (and maybe seven by the end of the week), the on-court persona of a raging bull and the off-court persona of an over sized puppy; he of the impeccable manners and ludicrously decent nature — he could not keep time if his life depended upon it. And yet he has just signed a monster watch deal.

This year, the lovely Rafa will play wearing the Richard Mille (he’s the bloke who designed it) “RM 027 Tourbillon” watch. Apparently, these little numbers go for around $525,000 a pop. They are feather-light and, according to one posh watch buyers’ website, are: “matched with an ultra light, comfortable polycarbonate strap and will be a limited edition of only 50 timepieces.”

So what are they like? 10sballs.com can exclusively reveal that they are… well, not very nice. They look like they have just dropped out of a Christmas cracker and, while they are very light, they look for all the world like they are made out of plastic. With a nylon strap. Fastened with Velcro.

Still, we journalists, we who live in the People’s Republic of Greater Penury, know little of flash timepieces and up market bling. Who are we to comment?

That said, there is one vital question that remains unanswered: will the new watch ensure that Raf gets to his press conferences on time? Alas, no. The face of the watch is laid over the inner workings of the machine so that the hour and the minute hand are almost indiscernible from the inner gubbins that make the watch tick. 10sballs.com had a brief look at the thing — in the 12 nanoseconds before Raf’s agent whisked the trinket from our nerveless fingers… Benito knows not to leave expensive stuff in the hands of girls — and could not tell if it was half-past-six or a-week-next-Thursday.

Apparently, France’s Camille Pin was in much the same state when she gave her farewell speech at the French Open. Camille, who reached a career high ranking of 61 in 2007 and is now down to 285 and whose greatest claim to fame was once dating Arnaud Clement, decided to hang up her racquet at this year’s Roland Garros. But she decided to have a little fun while she was at it.

“Thank you for coming,” she announced at the start of her retirement press conference and before a question had been asked. “Sorry. I’ve drunk two glasses of champagne on a bare stomach. That’s going to be funny. That’s going to be funny. Anyway, I wanted to tell you immediately. I wanted to be totally drunk, totally pissed here. I thought it would be funny to be pissed during my interview, and I have not eaten anything this morning.”

There then followed a bizarre and random, less-than-sober 10 minutes of burbling about feelings, emotions and tennis. Fortunately, she stopped just short of hugging the assembled throng and telling them “you’re my best friend, you are…”. It could only happen in Paris.

Photos: © Henk Abbink

Topics: Australian Open, Breakfast Sessions, Floodlights, French Open Champion, Gael Monfils, Grand Slam Tournament, Home In Time, Justine Henin, L Equipe, Law States, Little Darlings, New Ground, Night Sessions, Parisians, Rain Delays, Sam Stosur, Serious Danger, Vive La Difference, Vive La Revolution, Yannick Noah